New Way to Improve Antibiotic Production

An antibiotic has been found to stimulate its own production. The findings, to be published in PNAS, could make it easier to scale up antibiotic production for commercialisation.

Scientists Dr Emma Sherwood and Professor Mervyn Bibb from the John Innes Centre were able to use their discovery of how the antibiotic is naturally produced to markedly increase the level of production.

"We have shown for the first time that an antibiotic with clinical potential can act as signalling molecule to trigger its own synthesis," said Professor Bibb.
The antibiotic called planosporicin is produced by a soil bacterium called Planomonospora alba. When nutrients become limited, a small amount of the antibiotic is produced. The antibiotic is then able to trigger a mechanism which coordinates its own production throughout the bacterial population resulting in high levels.